Chapter Eleven
“She was flirting with you.” I scrunched my nose in disgust as the woman in question walked away. Tall, blond, and stacked. It was definitely his type before he married me. Even if they were mostly Vivian’s paid whores. My husband was sex on wheels. The flesh version of Adonis, all muscle and sinew. He was a machine. Powerfully built. Women were going to stare.
Few of them had the nerve to approach him directly. This one had the gall to proposition him while I was sitting at the table. It had taken everything in me not to skewer her with my Christian Louboutin’s. Matthias clearly saw my irritation. He winked at me and turned on the charm. Fuck, I was waiting for the woman to hand over her panties.
“I’ll be in room 403 if you decide you have some free time.” The falsetto mocking made me sound like a child, but I didn’t care. She sounded like she’d been sampling the helium from the fake peckers her surgeon put in her chest.
“You’re jealous.” Matthias beamed at me. His stormy eyes shone with amusement, twinkling in the lights. Fuck yeah, I was jealous. I wasn’t going to tell him that, though.
“Pfft,” I huffed and took a sip of my champagne. “No.”
He hummed like he didn’t believe me.
“So, if I was to meet her upstairs in her room later?”
“See how far you get before I stab a knife through your testicles.”
Matthias grimaced at the image, his hand going to his groin.
“And you say you’re not jealous.”
I scoffed. “There’s a difference between jealousy and not wanting to catch one of her many, many diseases. Like entitlement. Or the obsessive need to see a plastic surgeon on a daily basis.”
Matthias threw his head back and laughed. A full, deep-throated laugh that had my toes curling and my pussy clenching. Jesus, I wish he would do that more often.
“Shit.” I’d knocked my fork off the table. Scooting my chair back, I bent down to pick it up, but it was still slightly out of reach. Well, damn. I knew I could wait for a waiter to get another one but leaving cutlery on the floor didn’t sit right with me, so I did what any well brought up woman would do.
I knelt to retrieve it.
“Where did your friend go?”
Oh, that bitch was vapid and stupid. All those bleach products to her hair had fried her brain.
“She’s,” he paused for a moment, chuckling a bit, “around.”
Biting back a laugh, I maneuvered myself under the table while the blond bimbo from planet Barbie told Matthias all about herself. My daddy’s this and he bought me that. I got a pony on my twelfth birthday and named it Sparkles Pancakes.
Okay, that last part was made up.
Matthias’s legs twitched slightly when I put my hand on his knees and leaned into him. The tablecloth was so long that no one besides my husband knew I was under here. Without hesitation, I unbuttoned his slacks and pulled at the gold zipper. My mouth watered when I saw he was going commando. He was already half hard.
His pelvis jerked when I took his length in my hand, and I could feel him hardening in my grip.
And men thought they had all the power.
He groaned. The feeling of my hot, wet mouth on his cock too much for him to contain.
“Are you all right?” the blonde asked, concerned.
“Just getting comfortable.” He was clenching his jaw; I could hear it in his voice. “You were telling me about your pitbull?”
“Oh gosh no,” the woman exclaimed. “My poodle. Hypoallergenic.”
Laughing to myself, I took him in my mouth, and he stiffened beneath me, twitching against my tongue. We hadn’t been married all that long, and until tonight, I had never been the one bold enough to initiate anything. Especially not in public. Matthias was always the one to take control and lead.
Most of the time, I was too anxious to try anything, afraid he would reject me, but now, as I sucked him down and felt him harden even further in my mouth, I knew I had nothing to worry about.
I could feel my abdomen tightening, and my core flushing with heat at the prospect of being caught servicing my husband under the table at one of the finest restaurants in the city. The thrill of excitement and the thought of being caught lit my body on fire.
Pulling back, I flattened my tongue along the underside of his shaft until there was nothing but the crown left in my mouth. I swirled my tongue along his girth, licking the slit at the top. His knee jerked, catching the table.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Fine,” he gritted. “Continue.” The tablecloth folded against his lap lifted slightly and I could just make out the glare he gave me. One that promised retribution. Grinning up at him, I sucked him back into my mouth and, wanting to show him exactly who was in charge, I started a relentless pace.
“Blyad,” he murmured. The woman didn’t seem to notice his sudden Russian. She was too busy talking about herself. He fisted my hair in one hand but didn’t take control. Barely able to swallow half of him, I added one hand to the base of his cock, stroking him in tandem with my mouth while the other hand gripped and fondled his balls. His pelvis bucked harder into my mouth, causing me to gag, but I didn’t relent as I continued for several more minutes.
“It’s time to end this,” he said, and the woman audibly pouted her disappointment, not realizing Matthias wasn’t talking to her. Without warning, he gripped my hair tighter, yanking me against him until his cock hit the back of my throat, causing me to tear up.
I sucked harder, hollowing out my cheeks, allowing my teeth to slightly graze the underside of his cock. It wasn’t much longer before warm liquid spurted down my throat, his hips jerking as he released the last of his pleasure into my mouth.
Swallowing it all down, I dragged my mouth off his softening cock and tucked him neatly back into his pants before straightening my dress and discreetly climbing out from under the table. There was no way to escape without her noticing, so I simply cleared my throat to gather her attention.
“Where did you come from?” She stared up at me with thinly veiled distaste.
“From,” I smirked, “around.” I winked over at Matthias, who coughed a laugh before taking a long sip of his whiskey. The woman’s gaze darted between the two of us before she gave a disgusted snort and stormed off.
“Well,” Matthias grabbed my hand and drug me toward him, “that was entertaining.”
“Definitely not something tits for brains over there would do.”
Matthias hummed, tilting his head a bit to look up at me. His hand snaked around my waist to grab at my ass and pull me into him. Even sitting, he was still nearly as tall as me, and I was in heels. The distance between us was minimal. The other hand grabbed at my jaw, firm but gentle, and then he was devouring me.
“Ava,” he murmured, pulling away, and the past faded with him.
* * *
“You had the men move Abram’s widow and children?”
Vas nodded as he prepared himself a cup of coffee at the hotel’s continental breakfast. One look at me, and he handed me his cup and poured another. Damn. Did I look that bad? Sleep had been negligible at best. Haunted by memories of the past. Didn’t help that it was all one large porn dream that had me waking up hot and heavy with a growing need pulsing between my legs.
My hand wasn’t the same as Matthias’s. That was for sure.
“Sully and his men cleared them out this morning,” he informed me. Taking a sip of his coffee, he continued. “Seems like Abram had a contingency plan in place in case things went to shit. She wasn’t even surprised when we showed up on her doorstep. Had suitcases ready to go and everything.”
“Good,” I murmured, my eyes closing as the taste of pure heaven seared my tongue. It was cheap, but that was fine with me. I’d spent a year downing cheap coffee and booze. “Sully said we can’t touch Cartwright. Not yet, anyway. What about O’Neill?”
Vas’s eyes twinkled with mirth. “Oh, I have just the plan for that.”
“Why do I have a feeling I’m not going to like this?” I groaned.
“Depends.” He shrugged, grabbing a plate and helping himself to a hearty helping of eggs, bacon, and grilled veggies. “How quick of a study are you?”
“Pretty good,” I told him. “What are you having me learn?”
“How to be the CEO of a billion-dollar security company in less than,” he looked at his watch, “six hours.”
“Great,” I muttered. “’Cause that’s something I’ve done before.”
Vas grinned at me as we sat down with my father at one of the tables situated in the back. “Did you tell her the plan?” he asked.
I turned to him. “You’re in on it, too?” I pretended to be appalled.
“It’s not like it’s a real date.” My father shrugged casually. “It’s just business.”
Pump the brakes.
“I’m sorry.” I stared at the two men incredulously. “Did you just say date?”
My father shot Vas a look. “You didn’t tell her that part?”
Vas chuckled lightly. “Hadn’t gotten that far.”
Liam cursed under his breath.
“You want me to go on a date with the guy who had a hand in covering up my mother’s murder?” Disbelief was written over my entire face in red permanent marker. “He’s old and crunchy.”
The two men choked on their breakfast.
Served them right.
Vas coughed, pounding on his chest to dislodge whatever was stuck. His fucking ego, probably. Devious bastard.
“With his son,” my father placated in a hoarse voice. “Jaysus. What kind of father do you take me for?”
“Eh,” I shook my hand side to side. “So-so.”
“So-so?” he repeated slowly. “I am not so-so.”
“Then where’s my pony?”
Vas snorted into his coffee cup and coughed.
“You want a pony?” he asked seriously. “I’ll get you a pony. Fuck, I’ll buy you an entire stable.”
Throwing my head back, I laughed.
“I don’t need a pony.”
He didn’t look convinced. Shit. What if he actually bought me a stable full of horses?
Wouldn’t be the worst thing.
Except—I didn’t know anything about horses.
And I was pretty sure I was allergic to hay.
“All right,” Vas interceded. “Moving on.”
“Fine,” I grumbled. “Why do I have to go on a date with Crusty’s son?”
Leaning back in his chair, Vas fixed his gaze on me. “It’s not a date, Ava,” he assured me. “It’s a business meeting. Matthias has always vocalized his disdain for Platinum Security publicly. We need you to convince him we want to partner with him.”
“Why? What’s the endgame?”
“Jameson O’Neill built his company with money stained in your mother’s blood,” Vas explained gently. “Not only that, but there is evidence that his company is working with whoever has been shipping women for auction.”
That was suspicious. Where had he come up with that information?
“Who told you that?”
“Mark’s been digging into their background and clients.” Vas waved his hand dismissively. A sure sign he was hiding something from me. But why? “If we can make him believe that you don’t have the same scruples as Matthias, maybe we can get some insight into who they are working for.”
“The Dollhouse.” Why was he repeating information? We’d already been over this.
“We think the Dollhouse is just one facet to something larger that we can’t see,” Vas informed me. “Have you ever heard of Potestas Omnis?”
I snorted. “Impotus Omnis sounds more appropriate, if you ask me.”
They both groaned. “Potestas Omnis is Latin for Power Over All. We believe it’s a secret society going back more generations than anyone could count. Possibly even as far as the fall of Rome.”
“We?”
Vas’s lips parted slightly. It was the only tell he gave me that hinted at his duplicity.
“Mark and I.”
Shrugging, I nodded. “You and Mark discovered a sudden link to a secret society?” Vas nodded. “By yourselves?” Another nod.
“Right.” I stood from the table. “Look, I’ll go on your stupid business date with Crunchy Jr. But, until you start telling me the fucking truth, Vasily Ivankov, feel free to step down as my Sovietnik.”
“Ava,” my father cautioned gently.
What the hell?
“No.” I slammed my hand down on the Formica tabletop. “I’m done with the lies and subterfuge. How am I supposed to trust my own men when they can’t tell me the truth? Do you not trust me to be your leader? Was you backing me with your father all a lie?”
“It’s not like that, Ava.” Vas pushed his chair back and stood. He leaned toward me, hands on the table. “I need you to trust that I can’t tell you everything. Not right now.”
The laugh that left my lips was mirthless.
“That’s not how this works, Vasily,” I told him. “Matthias and everyone kept me on the outside. Hell, I didn’t even know I would inherit the Bratva. Or that his security company was an actual thing and not some showboat site. How can I trust someone who has never once trusted me?”
“I do trust you.”
My eyebrows disappeared into my hairline. “Then where is Dima?” I crossed my arms against my chest and stared at him expectantly. Vas sighed and hung his head. “That’s what I thought. Send up what you need me to learn.”
Then I walked away.
“Shit,” Vas raged behind me. My father whispered something to him that was too low for me to hear. Whatever he told him didn’t appear to have any effect on Vas. Not at first. But slowly, he submitted and sat back down in his seat.
What the hell was going on?
One thing I knew for sure, I was going to get to the bottom of whatever they were hiding.
Even if I had to do it myself.